Dan Owen writes:

The scale of horror that Israel has inflicted upon Gaza over the last nine months is almost impossible to comprehend. The Israeli army’s decision from the start of the war to significantly expand its authorization for bombing non-military targets and causing harm to civilians has resulted in the killing of tens of thousands of Palestinians, and has left the Gaza Strip unrecognizable. The surviving population faces mass hunger and displacement as a result of intentional Israeli policies, which are in violation of international laws of war.

Every day, more and more horrifying evidence emerges, revealing what many Israelis seek to repress. The South African case charging Israel with genocide continues in the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has requested arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for suspected war crimes and crimes against humanity. A UN Human Rights Council Commission found that Israeli security forces committed crimes such as starvation, murder, intentional harm to civilians, forced transfer, sexual violence, and torture. Even the United States, Israel’s closest ally, concluded that Israel’s use of weapons in Gaza is “inconsistent” with human rights law.

As these accusations pile up, Israel is beginning to launch another large-scale operation alongside its ongoing military campaign: the biggest crime cover-up in the country’s history.

Israeli leaders and diplomats repeat ad nauseam the well-worn mantra that Israel’s army is the most moral in the world. This claim is based, among other things, on the military’s supposedly robust legal mechanisms that ostensibly approve every attack and investigate suspicions of international law violations. In its arguments at the ICJ against the accusation that Israel is committing genocide, Israel’s defense team repeatedly praised these legal mechanisms: even if Israeli soldiers commit war crimes, the lawyers argued, the system is capable of investigating them on its own. [Continue reading…]